Renovated Ursuline Arts Center Unveiling is Sunday

This weekend marks the opening in Louisville of a renovated theater built in 1924. WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer has more.Sacred Heart Schools will unveil the Ursuline Arts Center to the public on Sunday afternoon with a blessing by Roman Catholic Archbishop Joseph Kurtz. While the center will be for the use of the four schools on the Sacred Heart campus, it also will be available to other groups from the community, says Sacred Heart Schools’ president Cynthia Crabtree.Crabtree says the $4.5 million renovation has made the facility handicap accessible and provided more amenities for audiences and production staff."We have a large area where we can really do state-of-the-art types of lighting," she says, "and we have a Bose sound system, which we think obviously is going to enhance every type of activity, performance, lecture, whatever might happen."Crabtree says the center will primarily be used by the four schools on the Sacred Heart campus. And she has high hopes for the facility’s future."It has been transformed into a beautiful, professional venue space for our Sacred Heart schools community and the Greater Louisville community because we hope that it will allow other people to use it whether it’s a lecture or a performance," she says.The architectural firm of Godsey Associates created the plans for the renovated space. Crabtree says the renovation worked to preserve many features of the historic structure."As we got into the history of the building and the architecture, it was decided that there was just too much history and too much beauty to demolish it and start over," she says.Crabtree says a lot of masonry work was cleaned and restored during the renovation.The renovation was funded through an ongoing $9 million capital campaign that is helping build and renovate other facilities on the campus.